


His Eyes Like Sky

by tyrionlannistre



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 18:38:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7725400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyrionlannistre/pseuds/tyrionlannistre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris usually shrugs them off with a laugh, because life can't be that different in color. She has gone through high school and college fine without it, and she finds kissing to be just as fun.</p><p>It isn't that she hopes to miss out on it - there are the rare nights that pass in agony, where she feels alone and grows to resent her monochrome -  but she sees its good and bad. People are often caught up in their feelings of love and color that they forget how to live without it. They're brought into a deeper sense of loss when they lose their partner, and their world is black and white once more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Eyes Like Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Will likely follow-up with a Barry POV!

She hears stories that describe the beauty of the world; hues of blue and purple that paint the sky and reflect in the waters beneath them, the greens of fresh grass that make the fresh morning dew even more delightful, the reds in their lips which are more fun to kiss. 

Iris usually shrugs them off with a laugh, because life can't be that different in color. She has gone through high school and college fine without it, and she finds kissing to be just as fun. 

It isn't that she hopes to miss out on it - there are the rare nights that pass in agony, where she feels alone and grows to resent her monochrome -  but she sees its good and bad. People are often caught up in their feelings of love and color that they forget how to live without it. They're brought into a deeper sense of loss when they lose their partner, and their world is black and white once more. 

Her father comes to mind. 

Joe West will never say it, but Iris sees the difference in him since her mother passed. His smiles are less beaming, his gazes more settled. They see everything the same gray now. He always promises, though, that she'll be afforded the same luxury he was with her mother. Love and colors. 

She wonders if it's worth experiencing at all if, in the end, she might be robbed of such privileges. 

As a child, her parents were everything she wanted to be. Brave like Joe, selfless like Francine, and to have someone fit like puzzle as they do. It isn't resentment that fills her now, only indifference. Iris doesn't want or need to rely on a stranger to help her feel complete. 

Sometimes, though, sometimes there's a painful, longing ache in her chest upon seeing her brother's happiness. Wally is rarely without a smile, but he's entirely divine in Linda's presence. It's the simple gestures that turn something within her, like the gentle graze of their fingers each time Linda gets up, the private looks they share over dinner, the soft whispers between them that are so intimate, Iris has to search for other diversions. 

Day by day, it becomes increasingly harder to ignore everything around her. She's finally reached the age where her friends, co-workers, extended family - seemingly everyone - are meeting their soulmates. 

"Forget 'em," an elderly woman tells her on a morning Iris spends a little too long staring at a couple by the park. "In a few years, they'll regret having ever found each other. Monogamy isn't for everybody."

Iris tries to smile back at the lady's clear attempt in easing her, but it's strained. What, then? What if she one day meets him and he, too, realizes monogamy isn't for him? 

She had a good boyfriend once, who loved her and made her happy. But color - where was their color? Eddie should have made her see colors, and when he didn't, they broke it off so that he could find someone who did. 

They're thoughts of the past, Iris thinks, and _I'll be late for work_. 

Fastening the belt of her coat tighter around her, Iris pushes her shoulders back and paces as fast a walk as her heeled boots will let her. 

Iris has to stifle a groan at Jitters' long line. She intended on making it a quick stop, as it was her turn to pick up coffee for her and Linda. With a quick text to keep the CCPN bosses distracted until she arrives, Iris waits patiently. 

Jitters is crawling with people cuddling up to one another, trying enjoy the last minutes before they're separated by work and errands and the rest of the day's duties. It's another couple in the corner that catches her attention. They're an old pair, holding hands on the table and sitting in silence as they sip their teas. 

Iris is stuck in the briefest moment of fear that she'll never experience that kind of comfort or compatibility with someone. 

A silly thought, she decides. People have lived perfectly content without soulmates before. 

So she orders two coffees with a smile, and thanks the barista before leaving without another glance to anyone around her. 

*

"We have a friend," Wally starts, his hand reaching for Linda's as a telling sign that he's nervous.

Iris stares at them. She should have assumed that their lunch invitation was more than a friendly idea. "A friend?"

"He's a good friend. Nice, attractive, successful..." Linda trails off, fully expecting Iris to catch onto her hints. Iris shakes her head with a laugh. She is not going to be roped into this. 

"Guys, I really appreciate it, but I don't think this is a good idea."

Linda and Wally look puzzled. She refrains from sighing in frustration. She loves both of them, but they don't get it always. It's one thing to accidentally find a soulmate, like they happened to, and it's another matter altogether to actively search for it. She could date a hundred guys and still be unfulfilled. Worst, she can actually grow attached to someone who isn't meant for her at all. 

Eddie's handsome face serves as an unwanted reminder, and she thinks about the smile he would save just for her. 

"It'll happen if it happens - "

"When it happens," Linda quickly corrects, the tilt of her brow leaving little room for argument. 

But it stirs an anger in Iris that comes out in an exhale of breath. She absolutely will not get into a discussion about it. "I don't want to be disappointed or attached or desperate. I promise that I'm perfectly fine as I am."

"And if you change your mind?" Linda blinks innocently at her, making her intention obvious.

"I'm sure your _friend_ ' _s_ number won't change," Iris resigns.

Pleased with her answer, Linda moves onto other topics for discussion, and lunch with the two of them turns into a nice affair. 

The time comes for them to part. She leaves Wally with a tight hug and a promise to have them for dinner at their dad's this weekend, and she kisses Linda's cheek with the same promise. Iris lingers after them, watching as Wally pulls Linda close to his side and throws an arm over her shoulder. 

That ache in her chest returns and tightens. She starts to walk home against the chill of the air, thinking that if she had an arm around her too, she'd feel less cold. 

*  
Iris meets Scott by accident. Well, not by accident, but she hardly intended on hitting it off with her new boss. 

He doesn't change her world, but he's nice to look at and cares about her work. He'll ask for her opinions on the cover story and trusts that she can handle anything he tells her to do. He brings her lunch during breaks and takes her out for dinner when they're done at the office. 

She's in his bed by the second month of his new job, and Iris suggests that they should maybe keep it casual. 

"Not big on the titles?" he chuckles, pulling her into his bare chest until she's half-straddling him. 

Iris thinks her explanation sounds a little...pathetic. He must be able to read her well, though, because his laugh is gentle and deep, vibrating low in his throat that she feels it under her chin. 

"I get it," Scott assures her. "I've already met her, you know. My _soulmate_."

He says it with such a mocking tone that she looks up at him. There's only a kind smile on his face, but perhaps the thick beard hides any cruel lines around his mouth. 

"We couldn't make it work. We tried for ten years, and still, we couldn't be happy. It makes me think that maybe there are more flaws to our system than we care to admit," Scott explains. "There's color everywhere around me, and I'm happier now than I ever was with her."

Iris shrugs with a small grin. "Consider yourself lucky. It seems like you get to choose your own fate."

In a smooth move, Scott rolls himself on top of her, and her legs wrap around his waist. His hand curls around her face so that he can kiss her deeply. "Never think that your fate is out of your control, Iris."

It's the last words he shares with her before he rolls his hips, entering her for a second time that night. 

*

"I'll grab our drinks. Find us a table, would you?" Scott suggests, pecking her cheek. 

Four months in and Iris begins to doubt the casual nature of their relationship. Scott inspires a different feeling that lets her think she could be okay with him, with them. 

Iris scouts for an open table and finds one in the far corner. It's another busy evening at Jitters, with patrons looking to get coffee after long day at work. She's squeezing in tight spaces and avoiding people left and right to get to the corner.

She's only a few tables away when someone turns unexpectedly, knocking her nearly off balance with a shoulder. 

"Excuse me - " Iris means to scold them for their carelessness, but she stops mid-sentence with a jolt. 

Colors.

Everything is overwhelming, and she's finally seeing _colors_.

It isn't the bland of black and white she sees, but bright eyes that she greet her. They take her by surprise - different shades that mix into a color she can't pin. 

His eyes look almost blank as he steadies her, and his throat bobs with the same realization. 

"Oh. It's you." 

His voice is soft, familiar to her ears like she's dreamed it before. 

_And you, you're real.  
_

He smiles and it's like she has never seen anything so welcoming. A million questions run through her mind - who are you, why are you here, where have you been - but there's a hand on her lower back that guides her away. Scott appears at her hip with a cup holder and their drinks. 

"I think we lost the last table. We should be heading back to the office anyway," he says, and at last he spares a glance to their company, whose smile appears a little discomforted now. "Hi - you are...?"

"Barry Allen." 

"Barry - I'm Scott." He sticks his hand out politely, but Barry only smiles in return until Scott brings his hand down. "Okay...And how do you know Iris?"

She feels a slight panic that forces her gaze away from studying Barry's face and interjects, "I think we're late to the meeting. Let's go."

There's guilt churning in her stomach when she leads them out of Jitters without glancing back, not till they're at the door and she sees him standing in the same spot, looking dejected. 

It takes all of her strength to not run to him. She keeps on Scott's arm, though, and watches Barry reach around aimlessly for something. His fingers make contact with a stick leaning against the chair. 

A white cane. 

Iris's heart drops to her feet. There's a small, cruel part of her that wants to cry for having to share a world of colors with a man who can't see them.

Another voice reasons that perhaps he'll teach her the world of colors in a different way that no one else can.

*

Scott makes an off-handed comment that irks her more than it should. "You've been acting strange lately." 

Iris hasn't told him yet. She doesn't know how to explain that she sees colors, that it's every bit as wonderful as people have told her it is; it's even harder to explain that she feels an explicit sense of loss after that day. 

Scott's kisses feel stale on her lips and there's no longer warmth in his embrace. It's Barry that she dreams of at night, after Scott has spent himself and they're laying naked in bed. She sees his face and parted lips, so pink, and his long lashes that flickered in surprise. It's his eyes that keep her tossing in Scott's arms until the sun comes up. Pretty eyes that match the colors of those galaxies she looked up; the greens and blues and grays that swirl with life despite the blank stare behind them. 

_Oh. It's you._

He said it like he had been searching for her, too. 

"If you say so," Iris mutters, brushing by Scott as she leaves his office without another thought. 

It doesn't surprise her that a week and a half later they break up. 

*

"Your usual, Iris?"

The barista smiles at her before ringing her up. For a month, Iris has been hanging around Jitters. She won't admit to hoping she sees Barry again, but afternoon coffee is an admittedly new addition to her schedule. 

"Thanks, Gwen."

She tips and walks to the condiments. Another day without a sign of Barry. His absence makes her wonder if he was visiting Central City or he's gone away for some time. Regret digs deeper in her conscious for having walked away from him.

Iris knows that she'll sit in her corner for two, maybe three hours with a watchful eye, but Barry still won't come. 

But in the end, she finds him by chance. Again.

She decides to drop off lunch for her dad at CCPD on her way back to work. Barry stands with his hands on the cane, leaning his weight against it as he explains something to Captain Singh. He must feel the same pull as she does because he stops mid-sentence and searches for her. 

Iris knows he's blind, but he looks right at her, and a smile curves at his lips.  
His grin is boyish and sweet, decorated with dimples and perfect teeth. Her stomach flutters like she's in grade school when he says, "It's you, again."

_And you... I'm not letting you get away from me this time._


End file.
